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Designing a Digital Meeting Place for B2B Sales Interactions

Ottosson, Joel LU (2020) MAMM01 20192
Ergonomics and Aerosol Technology
Abstract
Business to business (B2B) sales constitutes a big part of today's sold goods and services. These sales processes are getting more complex and involve more people than before. B2B sales are also more and more taking place online.

Throughout this thesis the author has researched the nature of a typical B2B sales process in an attempt to find sales activities that could be gathered in a common space online and thereby simplify the complex sales processes. The goal of this space was to serve as a digital meeting place for all things related to a specific deal.

Based on the research, a prototype of the digital meeting place was created. The prototype was developed during two iterations. Each of the iterations was followed by a... (More)
Business to business (B2B) sales constitutes a big part of today's sold goods and services. These sales processes are getting more complex and involve more people than before. B2B sales are also more and more taking place online.

Throughout this thesis the author has researched the nature of a typical B2B sales process in an attempt to find sales activities that could be gathered in a common space online and thereby simplify the complex sales processes. The goal of this space was to serve as a digital meeting place for all things related to a specific deal.

Based on the research, a prototype of the digital meeting place was created. The prototype was developed during two iterations. Each of the iterations was followed by a usability test to evaluate the prototype. The final prototype was implemented as a web application with the JavaScript framework Vue.js and tested by five sales persons with a background in B2B sales. This prototype received high system usability scale (SUS) scores from all but one of the test participants, indicating that they were overall satisfied with the application. Further, all of the test participants successfully completed all of the test tasks used to evaluate the HiFi prototype. Most importantly, they were all convinced that the application would simplify their sales processes.

The sales persons that tested the HiFi prototype also requested additional features. This included, among other things, integration to services like Google Calendar, a more advanced document viewer and a way to keep private notes in this digital meeting place. These features would require further investigation and were not covered in the thesis. With this in mind, it could still be concluded that it is possible to simplify the B2B sales process by gathering sales activities in a common space. (Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
Business to Business (B2B) försäljning står för en stor del av dagens sålda varor och tjänster. Dessa säljprocesser blir alltmer komplexa och involverar fler personer än tidigare. B2B försäljningen har också börjat ske mer online.

Genom den här avhandlingen så har författaren undersökt hur en typisk B2B säljprocess går till i ett försök att hitta säljaktiviteter som kan samlas på en gemensam plats online och därigenom förenkla de alltmer komplexa säljprocesserna. Målet med denna plats var att den skulle fungera som en mötesplats för allt som var relaterat till en specifik affär.

Baserat på efterforskningarna så skapades en prototyp av den digitala mötesplatsen. Prototypen utvecklades under två stycken iterationer. Var och en av... (More)
Business to Business (B2B) försäljning står för en stor del av dagens sålda varor och tjänster. Dessa säljprocesser blir alltmer komplexa och involverar fler personer än tidigare. B2B försäljningen har också börjat ske mer online.

Genom den här avhandlingen så har författaren undersökt hur en typisk B2B säljprocess går till i ett försök att hitta säljaktiviteter som kan samlas på en gemensam plats online och därigenom förenkla de alltmer komplexa säljprocesserna. Målet med denna plats var att den skulle fungera som en mötesplats för allt som var relaterat till en specifik affär.

Baserat på efterforskningarna så skapades en prototyp av den digitala mötesplatsen. Prototypen utvecklades under två stycken iterationer. Var och en av iterationerna följdes av ett användbarhetstest för att utvärdera prototypen. Den slutgiltiga prototypen implementerades som en webbapplikation med JavaScript-ramverket Vue.js och testades av fem stycken säljare med backgrund inom B2B försäljning. Denna prototyp fick höga system usability scale (SUS) poäng från alla utom en av test deltagarna, vilket överlag indikerar att de var nöjda med applikationen. Alla testdeltagare slutförde samtliga testuppgifter som användes för att utvärdera den slutgiltiga prototypen. Det viktigaste som framkom från testet var att samtliga deltagare ansåg att applikationen kunde förenkla deras säljprocesser.

Säljarna som testade den slutgiltiga prototypen efterfrågade också ytterligare funktionalitet. Exempel på detta var integration till tjänster likt Google Kalender, en mer avancerad dokumentvisare samt ett sätt att kunna hantera privata anteckningar i den digitala mötesplatsen. Denna funktionalitet skulle behöva mer undersökning och täcktes inte av denna avhandling. Men med detta i åtanke, så kan slutsatsen fortfarande dras att det är möjligt att förenkla B2B säljprocessen genom att samla säljaktiviteter på en gemensam plats. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Ottosson, Joel LU
supervisor
organization
course
MAMM01 20192
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
B2B, sales process, digital meeting place, usability testing, web application, interaction design
language
English
id
9003179
date added to LUP
2020-01-27 13:04:23
date last changed
2021-02-01 03:40:47
@misc{9003179,
  abstract     = {{Business to business (B2B) sales constitutes a big part of today's sold goods and services. These sales processes are getting more complex and involve more people than before. B2B sales are also more and more taking place online. 

Throughout this thesis the author has researched the nature of a typical B2B sales process in an attempt to find sales activities that could be gathered in a common space online and thereby simplify the complex sales processes. The goal of this space was to serve as a digital meeting place for all things related to a specific deal. 

Based on the research, a prototype of the digital meeting place was created. The prototype was developed during two iterations. Each of the iterations was followed by a usability test to evaluate the prototype. The final prototype was implemented as a web application with the JavaScript framework Vue.js and tested by five sales persons with a background in B2B sales. This prototype received high system usability scale (SUS) scores from all but one of the test participants, indicating that they were overall satisfied with the application. Further, all of the test participants successfully completed all of the test tasks used to evaluate the HiFi prototype. Most importantly, they were all convinced that the application would simplify their sales processes. 

The sales persons that tested the HiFi prototype also requested additional features. This included, among other things, integration to services like Google Calendar, a more advanced document viewer and a way to keep private notes in this digital meeting place. These features would require further investigation and were not covered in the thesis. With this in mind, it could still be concluded that it is possible to simplify the B2B sales process by gathering sales activities in a common space.}},
  author       = {{Ottosson, Joel}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Designing a Digital Meeting Place for B2B Sales Interactions}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}